HAWTHORN champion Sam Mitchell says improving the Hawks' culture has been his proudest achievement as he prepares to join the 300-club on Sunday against Richmond at the MCG.
Taking the rare chance to reflect on his career ahead of the milestone, the 33-year-old overlooked his four premiership successes and hoped his legacy would be the selfless culture he helped implement under coach Alastair Clarkson.
"The whole journey has been ups and downs, ups and downs," Mitchell said.
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"We've been up for a little while now. When you go back to when Clarko first came and we completely changed the culture of the place, it took a long time and a lot of hard work.
"When I leave, the legacy that we'll leave is an improved culture, a place that if my son ends up playing footy I'd be really proud if he came into a culture like what Hawthorn has now.
"That's a good place to leave it, whereas I maybe wouldn't have been able to say that when I first got here."
Mitchell, the 2008 premiership skipper, will play the 250th game of his illustrious career under Clarkson against the Tigers, having won 164 of those matches.
He has formed unbreakable bonds with the master coach, and fellow on-field generals including Luke Hodge, Jordan Lewis and Jarryd Roughead, who all helped build the Hawks into a modern-day powerhouse.
It was a different story in the early days of Mitchell's career, with the No.36 pick in the 2001 draft enduring a lean patch before the Hawks started turning their fortunes around in 2006.
"We talk about love every now and then, it's always a little bit of a sticky subject when it comes up, but you spend so much time together and you've been through so much together," Mitchell said.
"You look at the pictures, and there'll be photos up of us winning premierships, but we've been through some really hard times – Clarko getting sick, all the stuff going on with Roughy at the moment, Brett Ratten's son passed away last year.
"We've had huge injuries and all those sorts of things that happen … missing the finals (in 2009) after being a premiership team.
"When you bring the hard times into it, you just think about how much you've been through together and I guess it does make a little bit of love."
Mitchell, who enters his 300th game in elite form, averaging 30 disposals a game, has already signed on to play his 16th season next year.
"Just as I was about to walk in (to his press conference), Chris Fagan (football manager) said that he always backed me to play a lot of footy, but he doesn't think I can get to 400, so he said that should be my challenge now," Mitchell joked.
The four-time club champion isn't putting an end date on his career, but he's been preparing for his post-playing days by completing his coaching badges and finishing an MBA at Monash University.
Mitchell is still driven to win premierships, be a role model to his three children with his work ethic and continue earning respect inside the four walls at Waverley.
Which is why he's unfazed by winning an individual honour like the Brownlow Medal despite polling the most collective votes in history (204) without clinching the award (although he could yet share the 2012 medal if Jobe Watson is stripped of it).
"Unfortunately, I think the days of my Brownlow (chances) are probably finished," Mitchell said with a laugh.
"Clarko regularly says 'I don't want any player winning the Brownlow under my reign', because he wants a nice, even contribution from everyone.
"That's an external award – if you win a Brownlow Medal that's a proud achievement for the guys that get it – but I'd probably rather win a best and fairest than a Brownlow Medal to be honest."
